Street protests not best way of addressing challenges—Group

A group, Nigeria First Project Initiative, has said that streets protests are not the best way of addressing challenges.

The group stated this yesterday in Katsina during a one day interactive session in response to the upcoming nationwide protest.

The leaders of the group, Comrade Hamza Umar Saulawa

National Coordinator, Bishir Dauda Director, Research and Documentation and Rilwanu MD Mukhtar, Director, Contact and Mobilization, said they had convened an inclusive roundtable with civil society organizations that include youth-based organizations, students’ unions, people with disabilities, women groups, faith-based groups, academia, indigenous leaders, and human rights defenders, where they agreed not to join the protest.

“We premised our reason on historical facts, which show that most of the protests conducted in Nigeria were usually characterized by blockage of roads, harassment of passersby, intimidation, killings, looting of public warehouses, and destruction of critical national assets, among others.

“Our position is also guided by the outcome and impact of street protests in some neighboring African countries, such as Sudan, Libya, and Egypt, which include violence, coup d’état, and civil war. Moreover, we have decided not to plunge into the streets because our dear country, Nigeria, is being confronted by multiple challenges, including terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and vandalism, and therefore, we don’t want to add salt to injury by acting out of anger, which will further divert the attention of our leaders and our gallant security forces.

More important is the appeal and exhortations by our leaders and elders, including learned ulamas, royal fathers, and senior citizens, who all advised us to rescind our earlier option of staging street protests. We are people of culture; hence,  we can’t snub our wise elders.

“In view of the aforementioned, we therefore unanimously agreed to shun the upcoming nationwide protest tagged “End Bad Governance.”

“All members of this coalition will not partake in the protest. Instead, we are going to continue to explore non-confrontational approaches to channeling our grievances and those of our members.

“In addition, while we commend the leadership at both national and sub-national levels over their efforts to address the challenges, we urge them to expedite more measures that will ameliorate the suffering of the masses by implementing more welfare schemes.”